Books I love
Spirituality, The Other Side Of The Human Life
Peter Attia’s Outlive is for me a personal manual to the human body. But there is another aspect of being alive. And is far more fascinating. I got interested in Wayne Dyer’s writings in the 90′, in the second trimester of my life. I had a busy cardiac surgical practice,
Ernest Hemingway, Extraordinary Writings By An Extraordinary Man.
In my travels through the world of literature, last year we decided to revisit Hemingway, and flew down to Key West. I was familiar with some of his writings before, but the best time to re-read them was while visiting the place he for eight years called home. His written
The Exchange, a Novel by John Grisham
Right after my retirement, I decided to start writing. I just graduated from my life’s second trimester, and started my third. Grisham was always my inspiration. One of a few. Throughout my life I gathered a lot of material, numerous stories, excellent stories. I was familiar with Grisham’s career, and
Elon Musk; a Biography by Walter Isaacson
For two years, the accomplished biographer shadowed Elon Musk. He was invited to his many personal and business meetings. Isaacson had no restrictions with the access to the billionaire. No limits to the materials he wanted to see and review. Musk didn’t ask to see the manuscript before its publication.
Healthcare: Feeding of The Hungry Giant
The complexity of our health care delivery system is at the root of the problem. The chain of care starts with a patient, as it should. It ends with the government devising the policies and providing the funding for the delivery of medical services. Or maybe it’s the other way
Why Doctors’ Suicide Rate Is So High
It all starts with the length and the intensity of the medical training. After college, there are years of training in the primary specialty, and more if one wants to subspecialize. In my case, there were 5 years of general surgery, and 2 years of cardiovascular subspecialty. All that after
Peter Attia’s ‘Outlive’, a User’s Manual to Life
We all want to live forever. But we also know that our lives in the third trimester won’t be as joyful and carefree like in our first. And not that healthy like in our second. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Peter Attia’s monumental book explains how to
‘Genius on the Edge’, by Gerald Imber, M.D.
I wrote about Dr. William Halsted’s life achievements, and about his vices, in the post https://witoldniesluchowski.com/how-did-a-cocaine-addict-change-surgery-in-america/. The book, Genius on the Edge, is, however, about a different aspect of his life story. It’s about how, out of nowhere, there appeared in Baltimore a medical excellence center. A world-class institution, and
Why I listed “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese as the First in My “Books I love” Series.
This book was recommended to me by a friend, also a cardiac surgeon. He found out that they, with the author, were trained by the same surgical superstar, Dr. Thomas Starzl. In surgery, the provenance means a lot. It took me a few years to get to the book. At
Does a Stressful Job Shorten Your Life?
“It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it.”―Hans Selye, Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist, author of “The Stress of Life” Let’s see. Michael DeBakey died 2 months short of 100,Denton Cooley was 96,Francis Robicsek – 94,Domingo Liotta – 97,Viking Björk – 90,Alan Carpentier, alive at 89,Thomas Fogarty, alive at 88,Dwight
If You Can’t Find Your Genre, Create One.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Oh, really? So when I say: Nicole bring me my slippers and fetch my nightcap,” is that prose? PHILOSOPHY MASTER: Most clearly.MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Well, what do you know about that! These forty years now I’ve been speaking in prose without knowing it!—Molière, The Bourgeois Gentleman, 1670 In the
By the River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept
By Paulo Coelho I read this passage some years ago. But recently, it brought to me an entirely different meaning. I am learning about the function of the human brain, and the phenomenon of memory fascinates me. Please read, and I will return to my crazy idea in the next
How We Care. The Epilogue.
The family care doesn’t start at birth. And doesn’t finish at death. Arthur Kleinman, from memory, modified. At a certain age, each of us suddenly finds out we had ancestors. I got interested in my heritage when I realized that the name of the village, where my father was born,
The Plague
The choice seemed perfect. I read James Michener’s Hawaii while on vacations on Kauai and his Poland––knowing history of this country well. Reading Camus’ masterpiece now, when coronavirus is raging, lets me the current events with a different acuity. I don’t plan to relate the story in more detail. Enough
Forty-five years of cardiac surgery
In my gym, I meet the best people, and have the most interesting conversations, in the jacuzzi. It’s located in a corner of the large pool area and surrounded by a huge bay window extension. The sun is abundant, the water seems tropical, and, if I would drink, I would
Tomato horn worm and on becoming a gardener
A visit to the local independent bookstore, McIntyre’s Books is always a treat. Books there are invariably abundant, and the atmosphere is inviting for a quiet reading. During winter fireplace regularly provides the welcomed shelter and summery hot days can be tolerated better inside. Weekly readings by local and not-so-local
Why the Nobel Prize in literature should not be awarded
The Nobel Prizes in literature have been awarded to Polish writers many times. 1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz 1924 Władysław Stanisław Reymont 1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer (born in Poland, wrote of Polish – Jewish cultural tradition, in Yiddish) 1980 Czesław Miłosz 1996 Wisława Szymborska. Therefore I should be,
Reading of Anna Karenina and my thoughts thereafter
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Lev Tolstoy, beginning of Anna Karenina One of my biggest passions is reading. Ever since quitting medical practice, my schedule is more flexible, and I can allocate more time to it. I love to hold a
